Paolini's next steps: Building on a breakout year with new priorities

SYDNEY -- Jasmine Paolini isn’t dwelling on the achievements of her breakthrough 2024 season. The 28-year-old Italian enjoyed a remarkable year, reaching consecutive finals at Roland Garros and Wimbledon and capturing her first WTA 1000 title in Dubai.

She also won Olympic doubles gold, led Italy to the Billie Jean King Cup title and qualified for her first WTA Finals. Yet, the World No.4 acknowledged that replicating such success would be "impossible."

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"I didn't think too much about the last year," Paolini told WTA Insider. "I'm trying to be in the present. We have to try to improve, to keep at this level to still play well on court. This is the goal."

"You cannot do the same result. It's going to be for sure a different year, but this is for everybody. I don't want to compare the last year with the next one. It will be a different year with different challenges. We will see what is going to happen."

Paolini's biggest concern as 2025 begins is managing her health. Between singles, doubles and national team duty, she played over 110 matches last season, going deep in either discipline on a near-weekly basis. It's a good problem to have, Paolini insists, but the result was a year of nonstop work. 

"We know that now with the calendar like that, if you play WTA Finals and Billie Jean King Cup, it is tough to have many weeks for practice," Paolini said. "But for the next year, one goal is to try to prepare better the calendar. To try to have some weeks where we can practice a little bit more than this year, because this year I didn't practice at all."

Paolini's admission is a flex. With minimal breaks to catch her breath and recover, she and WTA Coach of the Year Renzo Furlan engineered a season that saw her climb from No.30 on the PIF WTA Rankings to No.4. A statistic that bears repeating: Before last year, Paolini had never progressed past the second round of a major. 

"Believe me, last year it wasn't easy physically," Paolini said. "I just kept playing. Sometimes I was not that healthy but I was just trying to focus on the matches and everything was going well so we tried to keep going. 

"But I think after a while you need to rest physically because you need to be 100 percent. To perform well you have to be healthy, so that's the main goal. The goal for this year is to be as healthy as possible."

Paolini and Furlan have already committed to a two-week practice block after the Australian Open, regardless of what happens in Melbourne. 

"We need some time to put some work on me again," Paolini said. "We go for sure to Doha and Dubai, but we have to plan recovery and practice. 

"I like more competing, to be honest. But two weeks is OK."

But aside from more practice blocks and recovery time, Paolini says nothing has changed for 2025. Her first match of the new season proved as much. She overpowered a returning Belinda Bencic in a 6-1, 6-1 rout in Italy's opener at the United Cup. She will face France's Chloe Paquet on Tuesday, as Italy looks to book its spot in the quarterfinals.

"I feel I'm the same person," Paolin said. "But maybe I have to do more things. But even sometimes it can be tough, but it's good that I have this problem. 

"Before, I had to do media, like, once a month. So I like it, it's nice."